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8 LEG 1 (2002)

handle is hein.journals/legthory8 and id is 1 raw text is: Legal Theory, 8 (2002), 1-44. Printed in the United States of America Copyright @ Cambridge University Press 1352-3252/ 02 $9.50 LAW OF STATES LAW OF PEO PLES: Three Models of Sovereignty David Held London School of Economics There are those who believe that the rules governing the international political system are changing fundamentally; a newuniversal constitutional order is in the making, with profound implications for the constituent units, competencies, structure, and standing of the international legal order (cf Cassese 1986, 1991; Weller 1997). On the other side, there are those who are profoundly skeptical of any such transformation; they hold that states remain the leading source of all international rules-the limiting factor that ensures that international relations are shaped, and remain anchored to, the politics of the sovereign state (cf Smith 1987; Holsti 1988; Buzan, Little, and Jones 1993). In all times, as Hobbes put it, political powers are in continual jealousies, and in the state and postures of Gladiators (1968, 187-8). Despite new legal initiatives, such as the human rights regime, power politics remain the bedrock of international relations; plus (a change plus c'est la m&ne chose. This paper focuses on this debate and, in particular, on the extent of the transformations underwayin the international political realm. Three mod- els of political power and international legal regulation are introduced in order to facilitate the inquiry The first gives the state free reign in the constitution of political and economic relations, and is referred to here as the regime of classic sovereignty It is the law of states. The second model, liberal international sovereignty, seeks to delimit political power and extend the liberal concern with limited government to the international sphere. Liberal international sovereignty embodies elements of both the law of states and the law of peoples. The third model, which I call cosmopolitan sovereignty, conceives international law as a system of public law which properly circumscribes not just political power but all forms of social power. Cosmopolitan sovereigntyis the lawof peoples because it places at its center the primacyof individual human beings as political agents, and the account- ability of power (cf. Rawls 1999; Kuper 2000). Models can be thought of as ideal types or heuristic devices which order a field of inquiry They assist in clarifying the primary elements or constitu- 1

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